Quite often I hear people comment that their puppy growled at a stranger and they thought it was so cute. Actually it isn't cute at all and in the future it will become dangerous as the puppy gets older. The problem is that your puppy should be friendly because it's a baby it shouldn't be growling at people.

This is something that I see quite often especially with single young ladies that buy a dog for a feeling of protection when they go for a walk. They get that German Shepherd or Rottweiler puppy at eight weeks of age and don't bother doing any obedience training nor do they do the things that are needed to socialize it properly during the socialization period before 20 weeks of age.

Then somewhere around six months of age they realize the dog is doing some inappropriate growling and barking at not only strangers but maybe even some friends who come to visit the house. The really bad stuff starts somewhere between 12 and 24 months of age when the dog owner realizes they have a fearful aggressive dog.

In this article I am going to concentrate on how to keep this from happening not on what to do when you end up with an aggressive dog. So how do we keep this from happening?

Let's start at the beginning. When you bring that new pup home it's time to start the socialization process. You have until week 20 to accomplish that goal so don't waste any time.

At 16 weeks of age it is time for obedience training and your pup is ready to learn. At this age their little minds are like sponges and ready to absorb anything you can teach them.

Quite often new dog owners and think that obedience training is only for show dogs or maybe only big dogs. WRONG! All dogs big or small need obedience training because that is what establishes the dog / master relationship. An untrained dog is like a loose cannon you never know what it will do.

In conclusion if you want a dog that you can enjoy and not have to worry about poor behavior or aggression start early with socialization and training. With as little as 15 minutes a day you can have a dog that you can enjoy for many years in the future.

Wayne Booth is owner of Canine Behavior Specialists, http://www.CanineBehaviorSpecialists.com in Nashville, TN where he helps people train their dogs and solve behavior problems. Wayne has been teaching people how to become Professional Dog Trainers since 1990 and he is the Training Director of the Canine Behavior Specialists Network, http://www.K9-University.com.